Hot August Nights in Roma!

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Sunday August 3, 2014

Partly Cloudy with Showers 87/31 C in Rancho Las Musket

Cloudy with Showers 83F/28C in Roma

Buongiorno,

Roman Holiday 2014 is under way. Since August is the hottest and steamiest month of the Roman Year, everyone with the time and the means abandons Rome, leaving the city to the invading tourists. Having lived through hot summers in Phoenix, Florida and California’s lovely Central Valley, I have no intention of going to Rome during August.  I’m planning on waiting until November so I can celebrate Thanksgiving with my Italian family.  Even the Pope abandons the Vatican for the cooler climes of Castel Gandolfo. (I’m just guessing that Francis will take a bus there, not the Pope-mobile). Mike and Laura will probably also head out of town. One year it was up the coast to Cinque Terre, last year it was South Africa in search of a Paul Simon concert. Occasionally, they even come back to California. The natives will do anything to avoid staying in Rome during Emperor Octavian’s namesake month. This leaves plenty of room for visitors.

The only reason, I’m even mentioning this, is because I’m trying to plan my annual family visit to Italy, and Mike has already warned me about coming to Rome in August. "Vedi Napoli e poi muori! — See Naples and die!" goes the old saying. But, farther north up the “the boot” it’s “See Roma and melt!”  So, I’ll leave Rome in August to the folks from Poughkeepsie, and wait for cooler weather. I’ve even re-read some of my Rome Diary postings from late 2013 and early 2014 and have been glued to Rick Steves’ travel shows on PBS.  Every time his features on Rome or Venice or Florence air I get all quivery inside and begin to perspire in anticipation. This year, I’m hoping to stop over in Amsterdam to visit an old friend from my home town. And, I would really love to visit Prague. My paternal grandparents emigrated from that area of the Czech Republic, and I’ve been told that there are still some Botula’s living there. Well, we shall see how it all shakes out.

I have also been reading some of the “Rome Diaries” I posted on Facebook last year. I had gotten a positive response from people who followed my expatriate adventure and since I’ve been back in California, I’ve started a blog and I’m posting regularly on Facebook. I’m also continuing with my efforts to learn Italian and I’m even taking a conversational French class given here at my apartment complex by one of my neighbors. I am so glad I took two years of Latin back at Riverhead High School. Latin has eased me into learning bits of three other languages – Spanish, Italian and French, which I also studied for a year in high school. Other travels took me several times to Germany and Austria where I picked up a little German as well. At least now, I can say “hello” and “goodbye,” find my way to the bathroom and understand most of what’s on a restaurant menu.

Of all the tips I can give to friends with an eye for travel it is heartily suggesting that you take the time to learn a little of the language spoken at your travel destination. Grab a phrase book and try it out for yourself. In the book section at Costco there’s a cracker jack of a learning program from EuroTalk in just about every major language, priced at about $30 dollars (that’s €22.34.) The program is on disks and is interactive. It also includes a travel map and a phrase book that you can take with you.  There’s even a nifty, free online language program called Duolingo that Linda showed me.

After three extended trips to Rome, I look upon the Eternal City as my home away from home, especially since my last visit where I spent more than two months and actually had my own apartment for a month. Now, I can count Rome along with San Francisco and New York as three big cities that I have loved living in. Los Angeles is a different animal because it’s not just one city; it’s a collection of villages. And while I tell people that I loved living in New York, San Francisco, and Rome, I never got the same feeling about LA. I like it. In fact, I’m in awe of the city and its history, but it’s a tough city to love. The best thing I can say is that after 35 years of being a newsman in Los Angeles is that I think I understand it.

Well now, it’s August, a big month for History. What else happened on August 3^rd? Flashback music, maestro, please!

On this day in History:

8CE - Roman Empire general Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus, (overwhelming all 101 of them.)

435 - Deposed Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of Nestorianism, exiled by Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.
881 - Battle at Saucourt: French King Louis III beats the Vikings. (Then meets the 49’ers in the NFL Playoffs?)
1108 - Louis VI, "the Fat One," King of France, crowned
1492 - Columbus sets sail on his first voyage with his 3 ships Santa Maria, Pinta and Niña from Palos de la Frontera, Spain for the "Indies"
1527 - First known letter was sent from North America by John Rut while at St. John's, Newfoundland.(It arrived in Stockton, California on August 1^st with a bill for postage due of 4 million pieces of eight.)
1635 - The third of the Tokugawa shoguns, Iemitsu, establishes the system of alternate attendance (sankin kotai) by which the feudal daimyō are required to spend one year at Edo Castle in Tokyo and one year back home at their feudal manor, while their families remained in Tokyo as virtual political hostages.

1678 - Robert LaSalle builds 1st ship in America, Griffon
1778 - Teatro alla Scala opens in Milan
1852 - 1st intercollegiate rowing race, Harvard beats Yale by 4 lengths
1855 - Rotterdam-Gouda railway opens
1881 - US National Lawn Tennis Association removes "National" from its name
1908 - French brothers Amadee and Jean Bouyssonie discover the fossil remains of a nearly complete 60,000 year-old Neanderthal man at La Chappelle-aux-Saints, France. Known as the 'Old man of La Chappelle' his skeleton shows that Neanderthals led physically stressful lives with high risk of injury.
1913 - Wheatland Hop Riot
1914 - 1st seaworthy ship through Panama Canal
1921 - 1st aerial crop-dusting (Troy, Ohio to kill caterpillars)
1921 - Due to a technicality, 8 Chicago White Sox accused in Black Sox scandal are acquitted, however Commissioner Landis throws them out of baseball
1923 - Baseball games cancelled following the death of President Harding. VP Calvin Coolidge becomes 30th US President.

1926 - Traffic lights installed at Piccadilly Circus, London
1943 - Gen Patton slaps a US GI in hospital, accusing him of cowardice
1948 - Cleveland's Satchel Paige make his 1st start & goes 7 innings

Birthdays

1926 - Tony Bennett, Queens NY, singer. (Left a body part in SF)

1941 - Martha Stewart, New Jersey, business magnate and TV personality, founder of Martha Stewart Living. (Martha and I were born the same year.)

My trip planning is  already underway. Passport has another couple of years before expiration. International roaming and discount plans for US to Europe and Europe to US already set with ATT on my IPhone. I’m also taking my laptop, which will give me Skype and Viber capability. Since I plan to do some writing while I’m on the road, I’ve already picked up several of those 240 to 110 voltage converters. I bought a new Kindle “PaperWhite” for all my reading, including the language and phrase books along with plenty of material to read on the plane.  I’m trolling the airline sites checking out prices, and talking to the airlines in case I bring my dog with me. I’ve already registered Lola as a “Companion Animal” so she can travel in the cabin with me. A couple of weeks before departure, I’ll call my friends at Citibank to let them know of my travel plans so they don’t shut down my accounts when I start using my debit and credit cards in Europe. I’ll also order some Euros so I have some cash in my pocket when I arrive in Italy. Anything beyond that, I can get from a local ATM. The Italian Post Offices all have ATMs, so it’s not a problem.

                Mike and Laura have bought a new house and should be established in the new digs long before I arrive. If there’s a delay, I will probably delay my arrival until the Spring. Having Grandpa visit you in your new home while there’s remodeling going on is not a curse I’d wish on my kids. They've done too much for me.

Ciao, MikeBo